‘Plastic chaos’ of broken sledges
Lazy sledgers they left behind shards of plastic across one Sunderland park after a day in the snow.
Becca Harvey, 30, and partner Michael Ward, 41, visited the hills close to Silksworth Ski Slope with Michael’s seven-year-old daughter Sasha.
But instead of heading straight to the hills to enjoy the snow, they ended up spending 40 minutes clearing away parts of broken plastic sledges which had been left littering the ground.
These pictures show just a small amount of the waste left behind across the park by sledgers.
Unable to carry it all home, they piled it up close to a bin ready to be taken away.
Becca, who works in TV production and lives near to the park, said: “It was just horrific, especially as Michael and I are outdoor swimmers, so we’re always picking up litter from the beach, and after we said to Sasha that we were going to the park to sledge, as she couldn’t remember the
last time she’d been sledging and was really excited.
"When we got there, it was plastic chaos.
“We’ve been teaching her about picking up after yourself and then we ended up doing that before we were able to sledge and have some fun.
"We were doing what we should be, staying close to home and not travelling in the car, and we didn’t have a bag to put it in, so left it close to the bin.”
She added: “That was just one side of the hills at the ski slope and it was quite a big hill, so people probably came down fast and the bottom of the sledge has come away, but we’d had more
snow and it only takes one little one to come down and cut themselves.
"There was lots of other people there yesterday and it was very concerning to see everyone else use it as a rubbish tip.
"It’s not hard to take the plastic home and put it in your recycling bin.
"We should, more than ever, be looking after our local area and hopefully people will do that more in the future.”
With rain on the way later this week and no more snow in the forecast for the area for the rest of the month, there should be no more sledge debris littering the park.